A few of my favorite things

beauty

Full at just the right amount and fresh looking. Unfortunately, even if mine are kind of full-looking, it has dark edges (like I had violet-liner on while the middle parts are pink, like wtf right?) and it looks rather odd. Obviously I wanted that evened out. Being the heavy instagram-shopper that I am, I saw an ad one day about a lip lightening balm named M.Chue Kiss Me Lip Balm that promises to restore dark lips into a youthful pink tone. This was one of those purchases that I took a chance on even if I couldn’t find much reviews about it on the internet. It was only 100 php at Flawlesspapaya, so why not? I purchased the M.Chue Kiss Me Lip Color along with it because I read a review on it saying that it looks natural, like you don’t have lipstick on. If you get it as a set, it also comes with the lip scrub but I opted out of that because I’m kind of lazy with maintenance products like scrubs or the like.

So I tried it out for a few weeks.

Before and without any sort of product on my lips:

The balm comes in a jewel-looking pot and the consistency is like most lip balms in a pot, though this has a more compact wax-like texture that goes on smooth and is absorbed well by the lips. It feels like vaseline once on the lips (and well, IT DOES have vaseline in it as part of the ingredients but does not have the same consistency in the pot.) It doesn’t just sit on the lips, it is absorbed by it, which is great.

It has a numbing feeling once you put it on which might be alarming for some people who have no experience with lip plumpers. I am guessing this is due to the vitamin b3 content that it has–and that some lip plumping product also have. The ‘numb’ feeling wears off after about 5 mins or so (again, like most lip plumpers.) This is an important fact to discuss, I feel, as a warning to those with sensitive and easily irritated lips. So for those with sensitive/easily irritated lips or those who are allergy-prone, keep that in mind before purchasing this lip balm.

So far, after 3 days of using it, I haven’t seen any remarkable lightening effect, but it does make my lips look less wrinkled, makes it look smooth and the dark edges look evened out whenever I have this on.

After, with M.Chue lip balm on my lips:

The M.Chue lip color also feels like more of a lip balm than a lipstick (as it seems to claim to be.) To me lip color implies lipstick but I’d describe M.Chue lip color more as a tinted balm than an actual lip color/lipstick product. That doesn’t mean that I feel shortchanged, in fact I love it. I have mentioned a couple of times before that I like natural makeup and this tinted balm makes my lips look naturally pink. It also has a semi matte texture once applied which I also love. It also comes in red and orange, but I haven’t tried those yet. I gravitate towards pinks more.

Swatched on my hand

My camera is shoddy, but here is an indoor pic of the balm on my lips..it looks nicer and less neon pink in real life I swear 😐

Outdoor lighting with M.chue lip color on.

M.Chue Whitening Lip Balm

Pros:

-comes in a handy, cute jewel-like packaging

-plumps lips to a degree

-lightens lips? (Well it certainly didn’t make my lips darker but I haven’t seen my lips completely even out in color yet, maybe after a few more weeks?)

Cons:

-‘Numbing effect’ when you put on three swipes, which personally I don’t like (but some might, as I’ve seen some girls cite Duwop Lip Venom lip plumpers numbing effect as something positive.)

-Not available in drugstores/supermarkets. M.Chue is a Thai company, but I have seen a couple of instagram shops carry M.Chue products.

Rating:

3/5 for now

M.Chue Lip color

Pros:

-Handy

-the ‘lolita pink’ color that I bought is a nice pink shade for me, not too opaque, looks semi-matte and natural 🙂

-leaves my lips feeling soft

-doesn’t have that numbing effect

-said to also have a lip lightening effect although I don’t know if it does that job as I’m also using the lip balm right now.

Cons:

-Not available in drugstores/supermarkets.

Rating:

4/5

Would I repurchase?

I already repurchased the M.Chue Lip color just yesterday, so that’s a yes lol, as for the balm, we’ll see.

My tub of Skala Professional Oleo de Coco, ordered I think about a week ago.

I know I said I’d review M.Chue Lipbalm and Lip color first but I thought I’d review Skala Hair Treatment before those because my hair looks nice today thanks to Skala lol.

I discovered Skala via instagram after following DIY Beautyshop. I kept seeing raves from their customers for a while and decided that I want to test the product for myself. Like I’ve stated before, if a product gets a lot of good reviews, especially when there’s picture-proof, I get curious and usually end up getting that product (granted that it’s in my interest of course.)

I’m a big fan of great hair (who isn’t?)–but what i’m not a fan of is shelling out money every week or month to get salon treatment, and according to the claims of happy customers, with Skala, you don’t have to. Skala will give you salon-treated looking hair. Alrighty then. I ordered after a few months of reading great reviews on DIYbeauty shop and finally tested it out for myself.

I also put it on one of the greatest road-test you can put it on, which was restoring bleached hair.

I got the Oleo de Coco variant (they have several; Ceramides, Keratina..etc) because from what the other customers say, after using it their hair looked like they had rebonded hair (and were even asked by other people if they got their hair rebonded.)

Anyway, after I bleached my hair, I used Skala Oleo de Coco on my hair for two consecutive days and again after two days (I went somewhere and couldn’t bring the GIGANTIC TUB with me. It’s huge man! I didn’t expect it when I ordered the product.)

I didn’t see any effect expect for softness for two days but after the third use, whoa. Hello softness and my frizz from bleaching calmed down considerably. Needless to say I was satisfied with the result. It doesn’t look like my hair was rebonded BUT it does look like I got one of those expensive Brazilian hair treatments offered at most salons these days — which is good enough considering how brutal bleaching can be on the hair. Now I don’t have to wait months for my hair to rebound from bleaching 😀

Here are the not so greatly taken photos (lol :() of Skala-treated hair

Bleached 3 days ago, and after 3 washes, this is the result. Sorry I don’t have pre-Skala pictures of my hair.

Pros:
-Uhhhmmm soft and smooth hair duh! 😀
-better hair in a matter of days (which, hopefully will get all the better after a week, a month? :D)

-Huge ass tub means great hair for up to maybe a month (according to others, their tub lasted them 2 months with everyday use.) The tub is 1000 grams in weight.Cons:
-Not available at your local supermarket. So far DIY Beautyshop is the only place that I know sells them. I think it’s originally from Brazil.

-You have to leave the product on for 3 mins before rinsing–WHICH isn’t too bad considering there are 5 or even 30 minute treatments so Skala’s 3 min-rule is actually not that bad (only if you don’t have the luxury of 3 mins which understandably some people don’t have especially when running late in the morning.)

Rating:

4/5

Would I purchase again?

Yes. I’m sill waiting to see what its effects are on my hair after like a month or so though 🙂

I’ve always been a fan of natural looking makeup and one of the things I noticed on girls that have their natural makeup-game on point is that they have wonderfully striking eyes thanks to beautiful long and thick lashes. Obviously not all of us have that, but thank god for good mascara.

Lash goals.

The thing about great and effective makeup is that they can be pretty expensive. I honestly cannot afford MAC or any of the pricier brands that make wonderful makeup but sometimes, you’ll get lucky and there exists cheaper but not necessarily less effective alternatives and Heroine Make is, as I’ve discovered one of those few companies that make outstanding makeup that also happens to be more affordable.

I initially wanted to get the much-raved about Heroine Make Long and Curl Mascara but when I got to the store, the sales lady shifted my attention to the Impact Frame one because it promises not only to make your lashes longer but also give it more volume. She said she was wearing it and man did it look like she had falsies on so I went on ahead and got Impact Frame instead. (I still want to try Make Long and curl though.)

Heroine Make Impact Frame Mascara

For the Philippine version, the back of the packaging has a translation of the Japanese instructions of how to apply the mascara as well as the general description of the product.

The tube

Heroine Make Impact Frame mascara has a special kind of brush where you’re supposed to use the comb-back first to volumize and then the separator-side to lengthen lashes.

When I tested it out for myself, it didn’t disappoint. It volumized my lashes and made them long indeed (not that mine are short, they’re actually long but down-turned o_o) not to mention hold the curl up for several hours. I put mine on at 3pm and by 12 mn the curl is still there.

Here are pictures and they don’t do justice to what the mascara actually looks like in person. It’s so much more ‘out there’ in person lol. A friend who shopped with me who had virtually no lashes tried them and it was like she instantly grew lashes. Sorry I don’t have a good camera to photograph with but anyway. Pics, I didn’t put anything on my eyes except the mascara.

My eye without the mascara. I have long-ish lashes but they are always pointing downwards 😦

Left eye has mascara (one-coat.) The right one doesn’t. I rubbed the excess product thoroughly off the brush before application.

-cry-proof (Ok I haven’t actually cried in this lol but I did wet my eyes and nothing happened to it. It didn’t budge one bit.)

Cons:

-Hooooly crap is this thing HARD to remove (which is why i’ll probably getting Heroine Make’s mascara remover next as well. I literally had to rub sunflower oil on my lashes like I was shampooing them to get the product off.)

-Brush gathers too much product (so watch out for that and rub off some of it at the rim.) Before I took the photos I brushed off a lot of product first because I don’t like clumpy mascara.